When Andre Hollins pulled up the ESPN app on his phone on Wednesday night and saw that Penn State had managed the upset over No. 4 Michigan, spurring their own court rush in State College, the sophomore couldn't believe it.
"I was like 'What?!'" Hollins said, giving an animated expression. "I turned on the TV on Big Ten network and they were replaying the highlights. It just shows how this league is."
Because of that, the Gophers players know they can't rest tomorrow in their last home game of the season – against the Nittany Lions. And they draw back on the Wisconsin win, on Valentine's Day, for proof.
After that victory, the Gophers followed with a couple of practices that were on the weaker side, Rodney Williams said. As a result, they got blown out in consecutive losses at Iowa and Ohio State.
"When we get big wins, we get really excited, we get high on ourselves, and sometimes we kind of stay in the past, we stay with that last game," Williams said. "Coach has been trying to make sure that you can't get too high with the victories, you can't get too low with the losses. So that's something that' we've been working on."
Knowing that they still didn't play perfectly on Tuesday – shooting just 20 percent from 3-point range and looking stagnant in their half-court offense at times – helps seal the message.
"Our guys have to stay hungry and stay focused and take it one game at a time," coach Tubby Smith said. "Everything else will take care of itself if we do that. If we don't, we've got issues."
Other notes from tonight's media access:
